Alma Bernice Culbertson

Alma Bernice Culbertson -- nicknamed Toots -- was the third of the three children of Mabel H. Branson and Frank Andrew Culbertson. She was born 1 March 1908 in Placerville, El Dorado County, CA, east of Sacramento. Her father had long been associated with Placerville but in the years immediately preceding her birth had often taken mining jobs in Butte, Silver Bow County, MT, and it appears he may have been in Butte at the time of Alma’s birth, judging by a Placerville Mountain Democrat news item published 9 May 1908 that mentions Mabel and her children returning to Placerville after a visit with her husband in Butte. No doubt one purpose of the visit was to show Frank his new daughter.

Later in Alma’s infancy she and her mom and sisters would spend further time in Butte so that Frank could be with his family. However, in the spring of 1910, that situation came to what appeared to be its conclusion. Her father decided to commit to life back in Placerville year-round. He entered into a partnership in a blacksmith shop. Unfortunately, the mining industry of the Mother Lode region was in decline, affecting a great many other businesses that depended on serving the needs of the mines and their workers. The blacksmith shop did not thrive to the degree Frank wished, and so in 1913, he decided to pursue opportunities elsewhere. He sold the shop and the family moved in 1913 to Honey Lake, Lassen County, CA, where Frank’s uncle Thomas Henry Epley and family had been pioneers. The Culbertsons did not stay long, though. The lure of Butte won out once again. This time the household stayed put long-term, with the breadwinner remaining steadily employed as a mine watchman. This was a sea change for Frank, who had in his day travelled the world and had changed jobs at least a dozen times. (He had even briefly been a guard at San Quentin prison.) Frank would go on to pass away in Butte many years later. Alma’s sister Gwendolyn was another family member who rooted in for good. Alma however stayed only long enough to finish coming of age as a Montana girl.

On 21 April 1928 in Butte, Rev. Charles G. Cole officiated at the wedding of Alma to Donald John Mitchell, son of John F. Mitchell and Myrtle E. Slavens. Don had been born 8 January 1905 in Portland, Multnomah County, OR, after which he had been raised seventy-five miles farther south in Lane County, at first on a farm and then in the town of Eugene. He had come to Butte to get a get his degree from the Montana School of Mines. One of his classmates was Alma’s sister Gwen, which may have been a factor in the introduction of the pair to one another.

The newlyweds made their home at first in Spokane, WA, where Don worked as a mining engineer. Their son Donald John Mitchell, Jr. was born less than two years into the marriage. Within a few years they were down in El Paso County, TX, where their second and last child, Bernice Ellen Mitchell, was born. Shortly after Bernice’s birth, the family moved to Mexico, a sojourn that lasted about five years. Their place of residence was Mexico City, but Don’s job took him to a great many places -- something that was true of his whole career no matter where he was based.

In 1939, Alma returned with her children to California. She did so without Don Mitchell. The marriage had ended in divorce. He went on in early 1940 to marry artist and former air-show stuntwoman Marguerite Eardley Boller (1908-2007). He settled with her in a suburb of St. Louis, MO, where they quickly produced two sons. He enjoyed a long career as not only a mining engineer, but as a businessman connected with the mining-equipment manufacturing industry. He passed away in retirement in December, 1977 in Phoenix, AZ.

Alma’s first stop as a divorcée was San Francisco -- an interesting choice given that one would have expected her to move back to Montana. Alma was apparently drawn to the place because her sister Ethelyn and brother-in-law Roger P. Deeney were based there. It is likely the Deeneys played host for a few weeks or months during the transition. Soon, though, Alma had found a place of her own in the city at 2178 35th Street.

As the war years went on Alma became involved with electrician Carl Walter Richey. He was in the U.S. Army but was not sent overseas, instead being assigned to duties in the Bay Area, which among other things meant he and Alma had the chance to get to know one another. Ironically it was when they finally wed -- that event taking place no later than 1944 -- that military logistics finally got in the way. Carl switched from the Army to the Navy, and that meant he was subject to tours at sea. They waited to establish themselves in a long-term home. Alma and the kids bided their time at 2178 35th Street. Carl spent the winter of 1944-45 serving aboard the Republic. In the summer of 1945, he served aboard the Ashtabula.

Carl Richey was one of many children of Lucian Richey and Leda Mae Baker of Glasgow, Barren County, KY. Carl had been born in Glasgow 4 December 1908. When he had been eight or nine years old, the family had relocated to Winters, Yolo County, CA, on the boundary of the counties of Yolo and Solano, where Lucian Richey had worked in the fruit business. In his youth while still a civilian, Carl had become an electrical lineman based in Solano County.

In the post-war era, Carl obtained employment with Pacific Gas & Electric Company as a troubleshooter. The company assigned him to the western part of Mendocino County, CA. This area, then and now, represents one of the “off the beaten path” nooks of the state with comparatively little chance for a social life compared to other environments Alma had known, but it happened to be where her first cousin Ruth Williams Carson was based, and so the interval represented a chance for Alma to know one of her female Branson-side cousins, of whom there were only three. Alma and Carl rented a place along Highway 1, meaning they were right on the coast.

Don, Jr. may or may not have been part of the household by the time the Mendocino County sojourn began, but certainly he was not there by its end. The time had come for him to spread his wings. Perhaps encouraged by his father, he headed off to Central Washington Universty in Ellensburg, WA. He would go on to become a mining engineer. Much like his father his career required him to travel a great deal, and much like his father, he would go on to leave his first wife behind, along with the daughter he had sired. Ultimately he had a second family in Florida before his death in 1979 at only forty-nine years of age. Judging by indirect signs, he not only failed to keep in touch with his first wife, but didn’t keep in touch with his mother, either. There is reason to suspect she never knew he had produced any offspring at all, whether by the first wife or the second. By contrast, Alma’s bond with her daughter and the associated set of grandchildren was firmly maintained.

In the early 1950s Carl was able to obtain a position that permitted him and Alma to finally establish themselves in a lasting set of circumstances. The place was the city of Sacramento, where they settled into a home near the campus of Sacramento State College. (The address no longer exists. The house, like many others in that neighborhood, was demolished to make way for Highway 50.) Carl still would go on to change jobs, but not in a way that required moving again, and always he worked as an electrician. One of his employers was Collins Electrical Company. (This firm still exists today, having grown to a $100 million company with offices in five cities.) He was one of two Sacramento-based electricians in the family; the other was Bernice’s husband, Clarence VanHoy.

Alma and Carl retired to Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, CA. This kept them within easy visiting distance of Bernice, who lived alternately in Lake Tahoe and elsewhere in the Mother Lode region. Carl perished 25 April 1991. His body was interred in East Lawn Memorial Park in Sacramento. East Lawn was where Ethelyn and Roger Deeney had been laid to rest in the 1960s. Alma had taken care of those arrangements, and it is quite likely she had gone ahead at that time and purchased plots for herself and for Carl.

Alma kept the Diamond Springs home for a time as a widow, but in her extreme old age went to live with, or entered a care facilty near, a grandson in Modesto, Stanislaus County, CA. She died in Modesto 14 July 2000 at ninety-two years of age. She was survived by her older sister Gwen. Clearly Frank and Mabel Culbertson gave their offspring healthy genes.

Descendants of Alma Bernice Culbertson with Donald John Mitchell

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